Word: mathematicians
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DIED. CLAUDE SHANNON, 84, visionary mathematician who pioneered the use of binary code and employed his brilliant theories as practically as a rower would an oar; in Medford, Mass. Initially geared to help the telephone industry use automatically switching circuits, Shannon's work with binary code became the basis for all modern digital communications networks. His later work with chess-playing machines helped create the field of artificial intelligence...
Breazeal was uniquely suited to the task of building this new robot. She grew up near the technology-rich area that would become Silicon Valley. Her father was a mathematician and her mother a computer scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Her parents raised her, she says, to be "protechnology." Breazeal became captivated by robots at age 8 when she saw Star Wars for the first time. "I just fell in love with the Droids," she says, especially R2-D2. "But I was old enough to realize those kinds of robots didn't exist." Growing up, she considered becoming...
...conclusion of the debate, I was at my wit's end. I was led to suspect that this was merely a manipulative use of the word "math'' to dodge serious political discussion, and as a mathematician, I felt slightly cheapened. However, upon further reflection, I've come to a much happier conclusion. I think it was a complex and sophisticated political move that simply needs some further explanation...
Nobel chose the original science categories--ones that reflected his interest in practical knowledge. (That's the reason there is no prize for pure mathematics, not--as the oft-told myth has it--because a prominent mathematician ran off with Nobel's girlfriend.) Over the past century, the Nobel committees have, by and large, done right by their eponym. Winners have included Albert Einstein, Marie Curie and Niels Bohr. But the prize has not always succeeded in covering itself--or its recipients--in glory. Nobel-worthy achievements have been overlooked. Dubious science has been rewarded--and later debunked. And some...
...mathematician Alan Turing proposed a test to determine when computers had achieved this consciousness. Turing's test goes as follows: Imagine you are talking with an unknown entity on, say, instant messenger. If after an unlimited period of time you cannot tell if the entity you are communicating with is a computer or a flesh-and-blood human, then we must treat this computer as conscious. Turing's point was in many ways an epistemological **2) or empirical?** one: We can only define consciousness by the behavior we observe in other entities. So, basically, because you believe your roommates...